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NaNoWriMo

It’s become an annual tradition of mine (and Markie) to take part in National Novel Writing Month. I used to have a list of what I’d done in past years on my sig for these sites, but it’s getting too long so I’m linking to this pages instead now. So here it is – info on all my NaNoWriMo attempts! 🙂

NaNo 2016: The Things Next Door – failed (5K)

There’s a whole universe next to ours, and their problems are on the verge of spilling over.

Everyone knows about Them: creatures from a parallel world. Monsters. Mostly they appear as ghostly visions, but sometimes they break through. That’s when Agent Lucas Quinn turns up to save the day in the nick of time.

Everyone knows this because Sophie O’Riley films them and puts them on her hugely popular YouTube channel. They also know it’s not real. How can it be? Sophie is just a talented FX engineer and actress. Of course Sophie swears it’s all true, even to her closest friends and family, but it’s that commitment that gets her the viewers. It’s a bit weird that no one on the planet can identify the guy who plays Agent Quinn, but he probably values his privacy. It makes more sense than the alternative.

But one day Agent Quinn doesn’t turn up, Sophie’s all alone, and her feed goes dark. Good thing it’s all pretend, right?

#TND

current status: unfinished (5000 words)

NaNo 2015: Wild Fire (Cold Spell Book 2) – failed (30K)

After being frozen by the Spirit of Winter for a thousand years, Prince Issa’s return has shaken up the political situation with no one sure if he intends to reclaim the long vacant throne. To appease ruling Duke, Issa agrees to undertake a diplomatic mission to a distant penal colony.

Meanwhile, Flora and Bryn get an unexpected message from the Spirit Realm: their mother is alive and well, and has been held prisoner on that very colony for the last 18 years.

But the Spirits have their own reasons for wanting the saviours of Taleira to go to the island. The Veil between the Spirit and Mortal Realms is fractured and all is not as it should be. In a land full of criminals and outcasts, Flora might be the only one who can get close enough to find out the truth. And when the Duke’s motives for sending them there start to look suspect, the convicts might be the only help they can count on.

Current status: Unfinished

Camp NaNoWriMo April 2015: Elderwood University

Welcome to Elderwood University, the oldest and most distinguished establishment for higher education in magical arts and research in the Tri-Kingdom area.

Choose to study at one of our four world-class faculties, each offering a diverse range of courses that will challenge and delight any aspiring magic practitioner:
The Faculty of Arcana and Alchemy
The Faculty of Divination
The Faculty of Traditional, Rural and Folk Practices
The Faculty of Technomancy and Innovative Magicks

Enjoy state of the art facilities on site and our luxury accommodation. Apply now for entry this September! *

Join a group of mis-matched freshers as they navigate classes, independence, friendship, love and wildly unpredictable magic at Elderwood University. Who knows what’s going to happen!

Current status: Unfinished – ongoing

NaNo 2014: Devon Davies’ Destiny (again) – won

Completed NaNo 2008 novel.

NaNo 2013: Every Earthling (has her day) – won

In the far future an alien race known only as the Creakers have taken over Earth and keep human beings as pets. Fable doesn’t think life as a pet is so bad. She has a nice hutch, enters lots of pet shows, and her owners adore her. Then Fable falls in love with stray human Rex Rover and learns life on the outside isn’t so nice under Creaker rule. For Fable and Rex to be together they must decide between the safety of domestic life, or the danger of being free.

Current status: finished the book but not the story.

NaNo 2012: Homonculus – won

Libi is a Libra-model android, designed to ensure the fair and impartial investigation of interplanetary crimes, and as a young AI she has a lot to learn before her assessor declares her fit for duty. But when Libi discovers this is her second life, and her first may be linked with the case they’re investigating, she must try to find out who she was before the Zodiac Corporation restored her to factory settings to stop the serial killer striking again.

Current status: unfinished.

NaNo 2011: The Ebon Fountain – won

The fountains have existed so long that no one remembers who created them, but everyone knows there are three rules.
Rule 1: Don’t damage the fountains

Ollie needs protection, and one sure way to get it is to present a gift to the leader of the toughest gang in the city. What better trophy than a carving from the Ebon Fountain itself…
Rule 2: Don’t bathe in the water

Feet aching from a night of dancing at the palace, Anya’s certain such rules only apply to the unwashed peasantry of the city…
Rule 3: Never, ever, make a wish

With nothing left to lose, heartbroken Marius throws his last coin into the fountain. On any other night he would have gotten away with it…

One night, three broken rules, and three strangers find themselves thrown together to solve the mystery of the fountains before the whole city faces the consequences of their actions.

Current status: unfinished.

NaNo 2010: Star Faering (aka Pixies in Space) – won

It was November 2010, our baby was 4-months-old, and I was severely sleep deprived, so somehow I ended up writing this story:

Foxglove Thistledown always considered himself to be a typical pixie. He lived in a toadstool house on a sun-soaked meadow, wore the latest fashions crafted from seasonal flower petals, and was best friends with a red squirrel. Typical pixie stuff. Until the day he was stolen from his exhibit by a desperate space captain and learned his whole world was a lie. Now he’s stuck in on a failing ship with a motley crew, a mysterious passenger, and a fairy engineer who only wants him for his pixie dust. Fox is about to learn he’s not as typical as he thought he was.

Current status: unfinished, and possibly never will be in it’s current form. I may rework it and have another go in the future though.

NaNo 2009: The Overlord’s Daughter – won

Princess Angelina lived a quiet life in her floating castle with her father, the King, spending her days secretly reading his spell book and complaining that she never gets to meet any nice princes. What she doesn’t know is beyond the illusion around her castle on a cloud is a world in turmoil, terrorised by an evil overlord who has enslaved the people of the lands below with an army of metal golems. Angelina’s father. Then one day the tide turns and rebellion forces manage to kidnap her, bringing Angelina face to face with the real princess who wants to use her to claim the throne back. With the truth out which side will Angelina choose?

Current status: finished, unedited.

2008/2014: Devon Davies’ Destiny – won

Everyone has a prophecy at birth. There’s no question about it. The seers arrive from the temple, though no one ever sends for them, and fate of the child is recited. This has always been the way.

Not content with his predetermined career path as servant to Prince Algernon, Devon seeks out his birth prophecy from the temple to see if there are any loopholes to get him out of it. But when he finds there is no prophecy on record for him Devon realises his future is a blank slate. He alone has the power to choose, but can he make the right choices to help the people of the realm, avert a war, and save his best friend from a miserable fate?

Current status: finished, unedited.

2007: Cold Spell – won

According to the fairy tale, the Spirit of Winter encased a young prince in a palace of ice for all time, but Flora doesn’t care much for fairy tales. She’s up to her eyeballs in gambling debts and her and partner-in-crime Bryn need to come up with the cash quickly. Then opportunity knocks in the form of a young man called Issa with a mysterious power over ice and no memory of how he came to be in a cavern in the frozen mountains. Flora offers to help him find his home, though he’ll have to pull his weight of course, but luckily she can think of a few things that power could be good for. But when Issa’s past catches up with him and the stakes become too high for Flora it’s far too late to back out. The Spirit of Winter wants her prisoner back and if Flora and Bryn don’t help him a few gambling debts will be the least of their problems.

Current status: finished, slightly edited.

2006: The Diabolist’s Debt – failed

Wanda’s father was a world famous illusionist. People flocked to see his spectacular magic shows. What no one knew was he was so good because his magic was real. 1 year after his dramatic death on stage Wanda’s brother Sebastian is about to debut his own magic show, but on opening night he vanishes without a trace. With the police mystified, it’s up to Wanda to find him – a search that drags her into a secret war against the demons and brings her face to face with the dark secret behind her father’s, and her own, unusual powers.

Current status: unfinished, but someday would like to.

NaNo 2005: Technomancer – won

This was my first time taking part in NaNoWriMo and I decided to write a story I’d originally planned as a script for my film studies class. I’d labeled it Neo-Fantasy at the time and imagined it as a cross between D&D and cyberpunk done in a Japanese anime style. But, since it’s unlikely anyone will ever make it I wrote the book instead.

Magic is illegal, so cybernetics engineer Lore knows to keep her powers secret. She keeps her head down, she works hard, and she follows the rules. But when one of the few people who knows her secret calls for a favour which gets her arrested for handling contraband magical items she soon finds herself up to her neck in a dangerous plot that threatens to reveal her secret.